I Can (Through Him)

Well, if you are just joining us, we are really close to wrapping up a series that we've been in really since the start of the year.

We took a little break for the summer.

This series is called Unbreakable Joy.

Unbreakable Joy.

We've been studying the book of Philippians.

We've gone through almost all of it.

We are in chapter 4, which is the last chapter.

We're toward the last half of chapter 4.

And if you're not familiar, the book of Philippians, the letter to the Philippians, was written by a man named Paul.

He's one of the leaders of the early church.

And Philippians is an iconic scripture.

It is filled with statements of joy and gratitude.

It's like joy is just overflowing out of Paul as he writes it.

And if you know the context, that's very interesting.

Because he's not writing this on vacation, he's not writing this living the high life.

He is in prison.

He's awaiting possible execution.

That is an actual reality for him that will ultimately come true.

And yet, Philippians is not a downer.

It's not a huge bummer to read.

It's not Paul pouting.

It's not Paul begging people to pray for him because he's in such a low place.

In fact, it's the opposite.

It is just joy, gratitude, peace, love.

It is, it's what we would all assume you could only have if everything in life is going great.

And Paul teaches us through Philippians that through Jesus, through our faith in Jesus, through a relationship with the living God, we can have a kind of joy that is not circumstantial.

It is not dependent on life cooperating with us.

We can have an unbreakable joy.

One of my favorite quotes, my wife uses this a lot, whatever feeds you can also starve you.

Whatever feeds you can also starve you.

If you need life to feed you, and by life I mean all the circumstances, everything that's going on in your life, if you need everything to go well to feed your soul so that you have joy, so that you have peace, be careful.

Because whatever feeds you can also starve you.

If you become dependent on the circumstances of your life to have joy and peace, then watch out because that can change fast, and there goes the joy, and there goes the peace.

But if your hope is in something eternal, something unchanging, Scripture says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He is eternal, he does not change, he is dependable, you can build your life on him, you can have a kind of joy that can never be taken away from you.

Whatever this world gives you, this world can take away.

But if your hope is in Jesus, if your joy and your peace is in Jesus, nothing can take that away.

Paul lived that and he teaches us how to do the same.

So we've been exploring this together, and today we actually get to one of the most iconic statements in all of Philippians, and so no pressure on me to mess this one up.

We'll start in Philippians chapter 4, verse 10.

Philippians 4:10

And Paul writes, How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again.

He's receiving a gift from the church in Philippi, a church that he had helped to start.

They've heard that he's in prison, they're sending aid, and he's he's blessed by it.

He says, I know you've always been concerned for me, but you didn't have the chance to help me.

Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.

I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.

I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little, for I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

I can do everything through Christ, through my relationship with Jesus, who gives me strength.

There's a phrase we're gonna use a little bit this morning, and it's it's the one phrase I hope that you would remember from this.

It's I can through him.

I can through him.

It's amazing how much of life boils down to us figuring out what we can and cannot do.

As a parent, I spend a lot of time with my kids trying to convince them that they can do things that they don't think they can do, and then also trying to convince them that they cannot do things that they think they can do.

It's like a daily experience for me.

So, for example, my youngest Eli, he's in a phase right now where he's just getting really scared at night.

And I'm not exaggerating when I say that he has woken me up in the middle of the night, every single night, without fail, except for maybe one or two nights for the last two straight weeks.

So I am exhausted.

It's like having a newborn again, and I thought we were past this.

And it's just tough.

He wakes up and he wakes up scared right now.

His mind is filled with ideas, his imagination is taken into some bad places.

He shares a room with his older brother Judah, but Judah has this issue where he falls asleep like that.

Like when I pray for them, I put them to bed at night, Judah's asleep by the time my prayer's done.

And that's unsettling for Eli because he wants someone, not just in the room, but he wants someone conscious.

And so if he wakes up in the middle of the night and Judah's asleep, he comes down to me.

He comes in my room and he wakes me up.

Now, I will say this, dads, I've messed up.

Um, and dads or would-be dads, I've just I've been too nice as a dad.

And here's what I mean by that.

How many of you, show of hands?

How many of you, when you were a kid and you remember waking up in the middle of the night, if you were to go into your parents' room?

Um, hopefully you had two parents at home.

If not, it's a little different, but if you did, how many of you that had two parents would go to your dad to wake your dad up in the middle of the night?

Right?

How many of it was mom?

Yes, that's the way it's supposed to be.

Right?

I'm so glad to get that confirmation because I've always suspected that I have a memory of being sick as a kid, probably Eli's age, about seven, eight years old.

And I remembered going into my mom and dad's room and trying so hard to wake up my mom without dare disturbing my dad.

And I would just be like, Mom, you know.

And my kids, all of them, every one of them, every time, their entire lives, when they wake up in the middle of the night, they come direct to me.

They don't, they bypass Megan completely.

She's a great mom.

She's wonderful, she's sweet, but she's done something somehow.

So maybe moms talk to her, figure out what she's done.

Because she's figured it out, they all come to me.

And they don't wake me up gingerly.

Eli just taps the mattress next to my head.

It's just like, that's what I feel, right?

Every time.

And I'm just like, what, what?

And so this last week, a couple days ago, he did it every night, a couple days ago specifically, you know, I prayed with him.

And you do this thing where it's like you start sweet, but you're tired.

And then eventually it's time to not not be mean, but it's just time to be firm and say, hey, you're going back to bed.

Right?

We've prayed.

You're good.

And so we had that conversation, and he's like, I can't, I can't, I can't.

And I'm like, son, you can and you will.

Okay?

This is happening for my sake, for our whole family's sake.

And so he's walking up the stairs, one, two o'clock in the morning, and I hear him say this as he's making his way up.

I hear him out loud go, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.

I know.

Yeah.

Well, don't clap for him.

He woke me up last night.

So we're not there yet.

But on the flip side, I spend a lot of time trying to convince my kids that they can't do things they think they can do.

Like back to the stairs.

Several years ago, my son Judah, I remember he may have been three at the time, he's walking down the stairs, and I just happen to notice him, and he stops about seven stairs up.

And he looks at the ground, and I can just see him sort of like like bending his knees, and I can see the look in his eyes, and I'm like, he's gonna jump.

He he's been watching Spider-Man movies, and he thinks he can clear seven stairs.

And it was obvious this is no, he's this is a hospital visit.

And so I had to be like Judah, Judah, and I looked at, he looked at me and I was like, do not jump.

Or you're gonna jump, and he just went like that, you know?

And I love the courage, I love the bravery.

I'm like, you can't do that.

I've got a battle going on with my oldest right now on a regular basis, and it's great.

He's what he can't do is just make a lot of decisions, you know, because he's he's a he's 15 and he's at that age where he thinks he's ready to make all the decisions.

But he's not.

He's ready to make a some, more.

And over the next few years it's gonna grow, but we have talks all the time, like, dude, I love you.

You're not ready to make that decision.

You're not ready to make that call.

And by that call, I mean things like, what time do we leave the house?

Like he's giving us advice as parents now.

I think we why are we leaving at this time?

We should leave later.

He wants to stay in bed as long as possible in the morning.

And I'm like, no, you're not, you don't know traffic, you don't understand these things.

And if we would have left at the time he's told us to leave, we've been late every day.

So my job as a dad, as a parent, is helping my kids figure out how to do the things they can't do or that they think they can't do, but then also how to convince them that there are things that they think they can do, but they can't.

Does that make sense?

That's kind of life for all of us, isn't it?

It's figuring out how to do the things that we don't feel like we can do, or how to maybe not do the things that we think we can but we're wrong.

Great example of this.

Think about how you're wired.

Some of us are wired for immediate inaction.

What I mean by that is when a crisis happens, you pause.

You pause, you hesitate.

I'm not saying out of fear, you're just you're just not wired to immediately jump into action and do something.

That can be a real blessing sometimes.

How many of you would say, I'm kind of wired to pause when something is in crisis?

Okay?

How many of you are like, no, I just do stuff?

Ah, okay.

How many of you don't want to participate in a in the hand being raised?

Okay.

Should have been more of you there, but I get it.

Why would you raise your hand if that's the way you're wired?

I get it.

So, look, if you're wired for an action, sometimes where that can lead is to you believing that you can't.

Something happens, some crisis, it could be hard, something in your marriage, something with your kids, uh, something with your career, finances, a friend of yours, a spouse, a sibling, a diagnosis, a tragedy, you name it.

And the first thought that runs through your mind sometimes is, I can't.

I just I can't.

I don't know what to say, I don't know what to do, I don't want to, I can't.

Others of us, you are, who, you're a person of action.

You are wired to do something immediately.

Your first thought is, I got this, and then you start doing it, and then really quickly you go, Whoa, I don't know if I got this.

I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

Help.

So much of life boils down to trying to figure out can we do it or not?

And maybe we don't think we can, but we can, or we think we can, but we can't really.

And how do we navigate all the situations and figure out what do we do, what do we not do?

And Paul gives us the answer, and the answer is, I can through him.

I can through him.

Let's explore this a little bit more because the the context of this is actually really, really cool.

Context matters greatly in scripture.

Sometimes there will just be little details, little words that paint a very different picture if you understand it, if you see it, if you study it.

A lot of times in our modern kind of verse of the day culture, the context of certain scriptures gets completely ignored, and it really changes what the scriptures mean.

For example, there's the verse, Jeremiah 29.11.

This is a verse that you may be familiar with.

Um, this is a verse that's on hats, it's on t-shirts.

A lot of people are like, this is my favorite verse.

Here's what Jeremiah 29, 11 says.

We'll put it on the screen.

Some of you know this by heart.

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

That's like a lovely thought, right?

What a great verse.

I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

They're good.

Plans for a future and a hope.

People put that on hats, t-shirts, they write songs about it, and it's a lot of people's favorite verse.

How many of you would say that's your favorite verse?

Some of you are nervous to raise your hand.

I've asked way too many hand raise moments so far.

I'll stop.

You're nervous because you're like, he's gonna ruin it.

It's not gonna be my favorite verse anymore.

No, no, no.

It's a great verse, it's wonderful, it's powerful, but the context is almost always wrong.

Because look at what it says in Jeremiah 29, 10, just one verse before it.

This is what the Lord says.

You will be in Babylon for 70 years.

The people of Israel have been conquered.

They're exiles, they're being taken to Babylon, and God says, You're gonna be in Babylon for 70, not seven, seventy years, says the Lord.

But then I will come and do for you all the good things I've promised, and I'll bring you home again.

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for a future and a hope.

Good plans.

That's a little bit of a different context, right?

Hey, don't worry, the next 70 years they're gonna be terrible.

It's gonna be so hard.

Most of you hearing this are gonna die before these 70 years are over, but don't worry.

Because 70 years from now, it's all gonna be okay.

That would be far fewer people's favorite verse if they knew the context.

And it's not a bummer, it's not, it's it's actually, and if you want to think about it, and this isn't a message about Jeremiah 29, 11, that'd be a different day, but this is this great reminder that God is over history.

It's not just about us in our lives, it's something bigger than us, and God isn't just working in your day-to-day life.

This is about this is about history.

God's in control of history.

That's a powerful thing to think, to understand.

Well, Philippians chapter 4, this section that we're reading, it's sort of similar, that there's a deeper context, but it's not quite as much of a sobering context.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

It's just interesting.

So if you guys are okay, I'd like to nerd out for just a minute.

Can we nerd out together?

Like, can we talk about some ancient stuff?

Here we go.

Let's go back to verse 11 in Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Paul says, Not that I was ever in need, for I've learned how to be content with whatever I have.

Now that word content, hang on to that word, it's an important word.

He says, I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.

I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it's with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little, for I can do everything.

Some translations say I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

When Paul used that word content, he's using a very specific word in the Greek language.

I'm gonna put that up on the screens, okay?

Uh this is the word in Greek, and uh it's odarchis, and I'm definitely mispronouncing that.

But that's this Greek word, and we translate it content, and that is an appropriate translation, but it actually specifically means self-sufficient.

Self-sufficient.

Now here's why that was such an important word for Paul to use.

This is a word that every single person living in the Roman Empire, and the especially in the more Greek parts of the Roman Empire, which Philippi definitely was, this is something they would have been extremely familiar with.

This is like a buzzword.

It was a favorite word of this branch of Greek philosophy called Stoicism.

There were all kinds of philosophers in the Greek world.

Some would hypothesize about the nature of God.

The Stoics were more about the nature of man.

And their contributions to history are pretty profound.

I mean, these are some of the first people that ever sat down free from the burden of having to go out and work in a field every single day just to eat, and they could think about life, and they could think about, hey, why does why does life go the way that it goes?

And what is God like, and why are we the way that we are?

The Stoics were really popular.

Some of the most important people that were Stoic philosophers are a few of these guys.

I'll show you some quick pictures.

We have Epictetus, okay, Epictetus.

Uh, here's a picture of him.

You know you've made it when 2,000 years later the world knows what you look like, and there weren't photos back then.

When you were important enough for your face to be etched in stone, he looks like a good time.

Then you've got Seneca.

Seneca, uh super important Stoic philosopher, and probably the most important, definitely the most powerful, Marcus Aurelius.

He was actually emperor of Rome.

And these men were stoic philosophers.

They wrote a lot, they thought a lot about the nature of humanity, and they noticed a problem.

And they were trying to solve a fundamental problem with us as people.

What they noticed was basically this.

When people have very little, when their life could be described as wanting, their life is defined by want, they can do some really terrible things out of that place of want.

On the flip side, they observed that, man, when people have everything, when people are not wanting but wealthy, and their lives are defined by their wealth, they can do some pretty terrible things in order to keep their wealth or grow their wealth.

So the Stoics observed that it doesn't really seem to matter how much someone has or what the circumstances in a person's life are, people are capable of some pretty horrible things.

And the Stoics sought to figure out how to rid ourselves of that.

How do we as people deal with that issue?

That whether we have little or we have a lot, we are capable of some pretty petty and at times even evil behavior in order to get what we want or keep what we have.

And ultimately what the Shoaks were aiming at was to get to this place where it doesn't really matter what you have or don't have, it doesn't matter what happens to you, ignore the external factors.

It didn't mean to disengage completely from life, but it just meant to get to a place where you don't need anything to happen a certain way in order to be at peace with yourself.

If it goes well, great, if it doesn't, fine.

How can you be at peace with yourself, stoic, so to speak, regardless of what happens?

That was their chief aim, and they they wrote a lot of interesting things about that.

Now, Stoicism was super popular at the time this was written, so when Paul uses that word, when he says, I've learned the secret, I know how to be content, and he uses that Greek word that was the buzzword of the Stoics, self-sufficient.

They're all like, whoa, okay.

This is basically Paul saying, Hey, I figured out what the Stoics are trying to figure out.

But he has a very different conclusion.

See, philosophy is great.

And there's a lot of great philosophies that have defined history, and oftentimes they're headed in the right direction.

They are they are on target, sure, but they rarely, well, they never hit the bullseye.

They always fall just short.

Because scripture would actually agree with the Stoics that there is a fundamental problem.

We read about this often in Scripture.

1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14 says that a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 2:14

When it says a natural person, what it means is it's just a person as they are independent of the Holy Spirit, independent of God's work in a person's life.

That's a natural person.

And it says that a natural person, without God doing something in their life, they just cannot see or discern the things of God.

James puts it even more clearly.

He says, Remember, when you're being tempted, do not say God is tempting me.

God is never tempted to do wrong, and he doesn't tempt anyone else.

Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.

So 1 Corinthians is like, hey, there's something about us naturally that doesn't quite get the things of God, or maybe even rejects the things of God.

James says, temptation, those desires that we have to do things that are wrong, that stuff is natural.

That stuff comes from within.

Sometimes as believers, it's really easy for us to just blame Satan on all our temptation, but scripture would teach us that, hey, not saying that that doesn't happen, that sometimes Satan isn't directly involved, but a lot of the temptation we face, it just comes from us.

It's in there, it's natural.

Jesus affirms this.

Well, I guess James really echoes what Jesus would have said.

In Matthew chapter 15, Jesus is teaching, and he's actually teaching about something really interesting.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

He's teaching about washing your hands.

The Pharisees, the religious leaders, they have this elaborate ritual for hand washing.

They believe that if you didn't wash your hands the right way, that you could be defiled, that you would touch something and you would eat something, for example, and if you hadn't done the appropriate hand washing ritual, you're gonna be defiled spiritually by what you ate.

And so Jesus shows up to their house and he knows what they believe, and he just skips the whole hand washing thing.

And they're just like, whoa, what is going on?

And so Jesus teaches in verse 16, don't you understand yet?

Anything you eat passes through the stomach, then goes into the sewer.

But the words you speak come from the heart.

That is what defiles you.

For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual morality, theft, lying, and slander.

These are what defile you.

Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.

Jesus says that what defiles us, that stuff comes from within.

That comes from the heart.

That's why we have to be careful about some of the advice that our world gives us when it says to follow your heart.

Just follow your heart, everything will work out great.

The Old Testament says that the human heart is wicked and deceitful.

Like it lies to us all the time.

There's a concept that we have in scripture called original sin.

Psalm 51.5 might be the clearest example of it.

It says, For I was born a sinner.

I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

Now you might think to yourself, this is a little bit extreme.

Like little babies, sinners?

Yeah.

Yeah, they are.

Who's raised one?

Anybody raise a baby?

Terrible people.

Right?

That's the hard thing about babies, is they're both cute and like little tyrants.

Little tyrants.

Just just go up to a go up to a one-year-old and just ask them for something that's theirs.

Sometimes they'll be sweet and give it to you, but that means they just don't like it very much.

Like if they're a cookie and you're like, hey, can I have that cookie?

You will see a rage and an anger.

That's why God, He's so good.

He designed human beings to grow slowly, like a lot of animals, they reach full growth at like a year.

Can you imagine how terrifying a fully grown one-year-old would be?

Like you would.

That's why we grow small.

Because for years, actual years, as parents, our only hope is just being bigger.

And I will pick you up and I will put you somewhere.

And that's our hope.

Like little kids are they're wonderful.

We love kids.

Obviously, we pour so much into our kids' areas.

We love kids, but I'm just telling you, none of you who have raised kids, how many of you had to teach your kid how to lose their temper?

How many of you had to sit down with your kid one day and say, hey, if you don't get what you want, just lose your mind?

Like that happened naturally, right?

How many of you had to teach your kids how to lie?

You had to sit down with your kids and be like, let me tell you, make up a story.

Just make up, doesn't even matter if it's believable.

Blame your sister.

Just do that.

Blame your sister.

They all figure that out naturally.

Why?

Because of what scripture says and what the Stoics had identified.

There's something in our heart that's just not calibrated right.

From birth.

The things of God are unnatural to us.

Self-sacrifice.

Compassion.

Those don't always come naturally.

Temptation, sin, evil?

That flows from the heart.

And so the Stoics that Paul is referencing, they got that.

They're like, man, there's something up with us.

Because obviously it doesn't matter if people are blessed or if they're struggling, they can do some pretty awful things.

How do we deal with this?

And what the Stoics suggest is pretty much what all of human history has suggested is that we work on ourselves.

That we work to improve ourselves.

And there's nothing wrong with that, by the way.

It's great to find strategies and ideas that help you improve yourself a little bit.

You can definitely do that.

You can read books, you can read philosophy, and you can become a certain percentage better.

And great.

The question I guess is what percent needs to change?

Do I need to be 5% better?

Is that what I'm going for?

10%, 20, 30, 40?

What's the percent in us that needs to change?

And honestly, if we are the problem, if there's something inside of us that's broken, well then how can I even trust myself to improve myself?

How can I be the one qualified to fix myself if I'm the one that broke myself?

Does that make sense?

And so Jesus comes along and see, he is not about self-improvement.

Yeah, you can take his teachings and you can take a lot of the principles in Scripture and you can boil them down into some type of self-help philosophy, and you can read it, and if you read it that way, and a lot of pastors and teachers teach it that way, you will definitely find ways to improve your life, no doubt.

Sure.

You'll be a certain percentage better than you were before.

But just know that that is vastly missing what Jesus came to do.

Jesus did not come to improve us, he came to transform us.

It is not about life improvement with Jesus.

It's it's something on an entirely different level.

Jesus came to make us new people.

Like new people.

He came to fulfill what the prophet Ezekiel said in Ezekiel 36.

I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you.

I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

And I will put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

This is God saying, you need a new spirit.

You need a new heart.

That's like taking your car into the shop, and they're like, you just need a new engine.

That's all.

You just need all the inside stuff to be completely and totally replaced, and then you're good.

Like honestly, he says, You need a new heart.

You need a new spirit.

If you have any hope of being the person that you're called to be and actually doing the things that God has called you to do, all you need is an entirely new heart and spirit.

That's it.

That is not that is not self-improvement.

That's something entirely different.

Second Corinthians 5 17, classic scripture, says that means anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

The old life is gone and a new life has begun.

A new life has started.

That's why we celebrate when people get baptized.

They've given their lives to Jesus.

When they come up out of the water, we cheer because that's that new life.

It's symbolic of a new life that has started within them.

And it it's a process for sure.

We call that sanctification, if you want to get into the weeds of the scriptural terms, the process of day by day becoming more and more like Jesus.

But just know this that if you follow Jesus, he's not that interested in life improvement.

It is life transformation.

He wants you to have a new heart and a new spirit and a new life.

That's why if you read the book of Ephesians, Paul says in Ephesians that before knowing Christ, we were dead.

That's the language he uses.

You were dead.

Spiritually, dead.

And then he gives us life.

This is why Paul has such a different perspective.

This is why Paul is able to achieve in prison what the Stoics wrote about and dreamed about and hoped for and ultimately failed at.

Paul says, Hey, I'm in prison and I'm great.

I'm so glad you guys sent a gift to me.

That's what Paul says.

They sent aid to Paul.

And he says, Man, it's such a comfort to me to know that you care and thank you for sending that.

But if you hadn't sent it, I'd be fine.

And he's not dismissing what they've done.

He's just letting them know that he has figured it out.

Paul has found the secret of contentment, and it is not self-sufficiency.

He is sufficient through Christ.

He says, I can do all things, not through me, not through myself, not through my own filters and my own thoughts and my own ability to sort of discern how life ought to be and how to look at things from the right perspective.

Paul doesn't say any of that.

Paul doesn't say, I figured it out.

Here's what I do.

Let me explain to you guys.

I do this, this, this, and this.

He doesn't give a list.

He says one thing.

I have figured out the secret.

It is him.

It is Jesus.

My life is lived in him and through him, and he is what sustains me.

Now I'm content through him.

That is what Paul's talking about.

That's the way that all of us can live.

That we have we have what we need through him.

If we actually believe that, if that's where our hope actually is.

You can be content.

You can be completely sufficient through him.

And worship team, you guys can can make your way out.

But we have to understand that this is a, guys, this is a reality that's really powerful.

And I'll be the first to admit that as a believer, even as a pastor, I live losing sight of this very often.

I have to be reminded of this.

I need the Holy Spirit to remind me of this, that Jesus is alive.

We don't have a philosophy.

When we come together on a Sunday morning, we're not celebrating a guy who lived and died and said some really cool things that we we want to remember and we want to think about because, man, they were powerful, and if we can just think on those things, then we're gonna be a little bit better than when we leave.

That would be us coming here to experience some life improvement.

But that's not why we're here.

We're here for life transformation.

And we can't transform ourselves, but he can transform us.

But we've got to understand the reality that we're dealing with.

Jesus Christ is alive.

He died, and then he rose again.

And right now, right this second, he's doing something.

He is active, he is accomplishing something, and it's on your behalf.

I'm gonna go to Hebrews chapter 7.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 7.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

Hebrews in and of itself, if you never read it, it's a very fascinating letter.

Uh it is it is extremely deep.

It assumes that you have a very, very deep knowledge of how the whole Jewish system of religion worked, but you gotta read it.

It's it's wonderful.

In Hebrews chapter 7, it describes the role of a high priest.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

The people of Israel, they were taught by God that, yeah, there's a fundamental problem.

The same problem that the Stoics figured out.

Like something's wrong with us, something's off.

And that word that they developed to describe that is sin, and their way of dealing with sin was to make sacrifices.

And so they would make sacrifices for their own sin, but there was there's one person in particular, the high priest.

And once a year, every year, annually, the high priest would make a special sacrifice, and that sacrifice would cover the sins of all the people.

And it was that person acting as a mediator, as an intercessor, we might say, between the Holy God, the Holy God, in Him there is no darkness, no evil, no sin, and someone making pleas on behalf of the people who are so broken and saying, here's a sacrifice, accept it and forgive, and all that kind of stuff, this concept of a mediator and an intercessor.

And so in Hebrews chapter 7, the author, and we actually don't exactly know who the author of Hebrews is, but but they write, there were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

Make sense?

But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever.

Therefore, he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him.

He lives forever to intercede to God the Father on their behalf.

Think about this.

He is alive, he lives forever, he is eternal, and what is he doing right now?

He is interceding on your behalf.

He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin.

Jesus didn't have to make a sacrifice on his own behalf just to go before God.

That's what the high priests had to do that.

Before they could go into God's presence, they had to make a sacrifice to pay for their own sin, and then once that was paid for, now we can go into God's presence and pay for everybody else's sin.

No, Jesus doesn't have sin.

He's unblemished by sin.

He's holy and blameless, just like God the Father.

He's been set apart from sinners and he's been given the highest place of honor in heaven.

And unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day.

They just did it, wow, here we go.

They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people.

But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people's sins.

Jesus, right now, he lives, he is alive, he is active, he is powerful.

What is he doing?

He's not just up in heaven chilling.

He's not just up in heaven being like, hey, I did it.

Sing my praises.

Like he's working.

He is interceding.

He is pleading with the Father on our behalf, saying, Lord, my sacrifice, it covers them.

I know they sin.

I know they fall short.

I know they mess up, but they're covered, they're with me, they're in us, they're family, they're sons, their daughters, they're good.

Jesus is doing that for you right now.

That's really powerful.

But it's even more than that.

It's even more than that.

And we'll wrap this up.

Romans chapter 8, verses 9 through 11 says, You are not controlled any longer by your sinful nature.

Romans 8:9–11

You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you.

And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.

And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives life because you've been made right with God.

The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.

Think about that.

The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.

And just as Christ raised Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same Spirit living within you.

The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that raised Jesus, is alive in you.

So let's take these two ideas and let's put them together and we'll just celebrate and wrap this up.

If that's true, if that's true, if Jesus, who is alive, is in heaven right now interceding on your behalf.

And if the Spirit of God, the same Spirit that raised Jesus to life, is is in you, is active and at work within you, well then you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.

You can do anything.

If that's actually true, if if I have the Spirit of God inside of me empowering me to live the life that I can't live on my own, but but I have that power inside of me working on me, and when I mess up, I've got Jesus Himself before God the Father as an intercessor on my behalf.

What am I afraid of?

What would I be hesitant to do?

What situation could I look at in life and go, I got nothing?

No, if that's actually true, I have God's spirit within me, Jesus in heaven interceding on my behalf, then there's no problem, no situation, no struggle that I can't look at and say, I got this.

But not through my own strength.

No, no, no.

Through him.

Through him.

So, yeah, praise God.

So, let's just look at that original situation we talked about as we as we wrap up.

You're gonna encounter things all the time.

Major challenges, major problems.

And you're gonna wonder, can I do this?

Can I do this?

You're gonna wonder, can I handle this?

Can I actually do this?

And those of you who are who are wired for inaction, you're right.

You can't on your own.

But through Christ you can.

And those of you who are wired for action, naturally, you're like, I got this, you're right, you got this.

If you rely on his strength, I can through him.

In every situation, whatever you're dealing with right now, whether you're like, I got this on my own, stop, trust in him, or you're like, I don't think I can do this, I can't do this anymore, I just can't.

Yes, you can through him.

In every situation, because the Spirit of God is alive in you, and because Jesus Himself intercedes on your behalf, you can through him, no matter what.

I can through him.

Let's take Lord's Supper together.

If you're new, um we take this little meal together.

We do this every Sunday.

And so, if you missed this when you walked in, there are tables with bread and juice, and so uh grab those.

And uh, if you haven't grabbed it, you're free to get up and do that.

You're not gonna interrupt anything that we're doing.

Um, but if you don't want to do that, just get it next week.

We do this every week together because it gets our eyes on Jesus.

Hebrews says that we run our race, that we finish our race by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

He starts it, he completes it.

And so, just like we're talking about, we can do all things through Him.

All things through Him.

So let's take the bread.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for this bread.

Thank you so much, Lord, for what this represents.

This is your body.

You were sacrificed, you were crucified on our behalf, Lord.

Thank you, Jesus.

And Lord, as we take this, we just want to say that we love you, that we need you, and Father God, we're grateful for what you've done for us.

Jesus, we're grateful for what you've done for us.

You are now part of us, you are with us, Spirit, you are in us, and we can do all things through you.

Just like you could endure the cross, because of your trust in God the Father, we can endure anything life throws at us through our trust in you.

Let's take the breath.

Now the juice.

Lord, we thank you so much for this cup, for this juice, for what this represents.

This is your blood.

It was poured out, it was spilled on our behalf.

It covers us, it cleanses us, it pays the debt that we can never pay ourselves.

Now we don't have to live life and wonder if we're okay with you, if somehow our mistakes are too great for us to be accepted into your presence.

That's all been taken care of.

Because you paid for all of it, just like we sang, you paid it all.

And as we take this in, Lord, we thank you.

And we ask that you just remind us daily, all week long, that through you, we can.

We can do all things through you who gives us strength.

Let's take the juice.